Games men hope for a bit of magic

Russ Jarvis, the co-director, designer and animator for Other Worlds Software

VIDEO game developers Carl Benjamin and his two colleagues are facing pressure to ensure commercial success with their first release after it reached its £8,000 fundraising target.

Other Worlds Software, made up of Carl, 34, Russ Jarvis, 32, and Giuseppe Constantino, 35, has developed Necromancer, a mobile game for touch-screen devices.

The trio asked for donations from the public to get the game off the ground through Kickstarter, a crowd-funding website, with 77 backers taking the team past their £8,000 goal.

With the money secured, the Swindon firm will go ahead and purchase the software licences required for the launch of their game, though the pressure for it to be a success is now mounting.

“We were thrilled to have raised the money, obviously – we are really, really grateful to everyone who backed us,” said Carl.

“We expect 80 per cent of the money raised to go towards purchasing those licences. The rest will be used for voice acting and music mainly.

“It does take time. I might be being optimistic with a June 1 release date.Later in the summer would be more likely.

“I’m very nervous, but we are certainly doing our best.”

Carl said much was owed to his own dad and Russ’s mum, who both donated more than £500 each to the project. They will now be given the chance to name their own characters in the game – one of the perks offered on Kickstarter for big donations.

The game will ultimately be released on the Google Play store, Apple’s App Store and Steam for computers.

The game itself, which allows the user to play as a villainous necromancer and destroy the survivors of a zombie apocalypse, will retail for no less than £2.99.

Carl was released from his job shortly before Christmas and has been working on the project full-time since, with help from Enterprise Alliance UK, a body expanding enterprise education and development in the UK.

The process of bringing the game to market is far from straightforward though, no matter how much time Carl spends on it.

“I spend about 12 hours a day on this. It’s going to be the end of me. It’s one of those things where you have a problem for a day or two and then you finally crack it with great relief.”

Other Worlds, based out of Carl’s home in Westcott Street, will need players to test the game before it is officially released.

Anyone interested in hearing more about the game and being involved with testing should visit ‘Necromancer’ on Facebook.